KARACHI
Heavy machinery and bulldozers were seen flattening a 30-year old graveyard in Natha Khan Goth on Saturday, allegedly in a repeated attempt at encroachment by a retired army brigadier.
Consequently, portions of the city’s major sewage drain, locally known as Chakora nalah, which carries sewage from Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Pahlwan Goth, Bhittaiabad and many localities of Malir to the main Korangi nalah, were filled by rubble from the graveyard.
After the incident, a large number of residents took to the streets and protested against those responsible for the move. “More than 350 graves were bulldozed,” Natha Khan Goth Welfare Association Chairman Yaseen Khan Bangash told Pakistan Today.
Bangash claimed that some influential people including a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army wanted to grab the graveyard land. “Haji Panhwar and others had donated four acres of the land to the association for a graveyard in 1980 and we have all the required papers, but for the past few years a retired army brigadier has been trying to grab the land,” he said, adding that the brig’s previous attempts at encroachment had failed because of the resistance from the residents.
Natha Khan Goth is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Shah Faisal Town with an estimated population of one million. Several ethnic groups live in the village including Sindhis, Kashmiris, Urdu-speaking, Punjabis, Seraikis, Memons, Bohras, Pakhtuns, Baloch and Ismailis. The graveyard is used by almost all of them.
A former councilor of the area, Fazal Bhai Qabaristanwala, told Pakistan Today that he had tried very hard to save the graveyard and managed to have a small bridge built over the drain, earning him the title, ‘Qabaristanwala’. “The land mafia operates all over the city,” he said, urging the provincial and city governments to build a boundary wall around the graveyard, so that it could be protected from the land mafia.
